Friday, November 19, 2010

Texas Tidbits: A Look at the Other Side of the Battle of the Alamo

I have always held the Battle of the Alamo in the highest of regard. It was fought by Texicans who were trying to preserve the rights afforded them by the Constitution of Mexico of 1824. We all know the basic facts of the story, but few of us know many details about the battle. One of the best ways to learn about what went on at the Battle of the Alamo is to get the observations of the participants. I found some of these first hand accounts at an interesting web site, texasescapes.com, that has all sorts of fascinating history about Texas. It's worth the time you spend there, so if you find Texas History interesting, you owe it to yourself to stop by the place.

Here's an excerpt from a letter written by a Mexican soldier who was a member of Santa Ana's army, "Mexican Soldier to brothers of the heart - San Antonio de Bexar: The attack was made in four columns, led by General Cos, General Morales, Duque de Estrada, and Romero. I marched under the immediate command of General Cos and tell you what I saw. The rest of the letter can be found here. I never really thought of the way the soldiers of the Mexican Army saw this battle in particular and the Texas Revolution as a whole, but I feel inspired to learn more about that perspective of the war. You'll be able to learn so much more about the Battle of the Alamo right here. There are many resources from which to choose. It's some great stuff.

While we can easily find first hand accounts of the battle from the Mexican side of things, getting an eyewitness account of the fight from the Texican side is a bit more problematic. However, I have a good place for you to start - at this link featuring letters from the Alamo. Incredible stuff there.

I'm sure as it gets closer to March, that I'll repost much of this information and a ton of new stuff as well. The Battle of the Alamo, as tragic as it was for Texas, it was equally important for Mexico. Both sides of the issue deserve a fair shake as to the way they perceived the battle and the war. And we'll do just that in the coming weeks and months.